Well-established power distribution systems exist throughout most of the United States, and other countries, which provide power to customers via power lines. With some modification, the infrastructure of the existing power distribution systems can be used to provide data communication in addition to power delivery, thereby forming a power line communication system (PLCS). In other words, existing power lines, that already have been run to many homes and offices, can be used to carry data signals to and from the homes and offices. These data signals are communicated on and off the power lines at various points in the power line communication system, such as, for example, near homes, offices, Internet service providers, and the like.
In one example PLCS embodiment, a backhaul point forms the gateway between the power line and a conventional telecommunications medium and communicates with a plurality of downstream communication devices such as transformer bypass devices. The backhaul point and its plurality of communication devices (and their associated user devices) form a PLCS subnet.
In order to compete with other types of network access technologies, a PLCS network must designed economically, while delivering competitive service quality. Thus, while it is important to manufacture the power line communication (PLC) equipment in a cost effective manner, it is also important to design the PLCS network to efficiently utilize the PLCS network equipment and to minimize ancillary network costs such as backhaul media costs. Therefore, there remains a need for a device and method for designing PLCS networks that provide efficient use of PLC equipment that also considers ancillary network costs.